NEW! General Booking is Now Open for Longborough Festival Opera 2017

General booking is now open for Longborough Festival Opera 2017: from 10am on Monday 6 March keen opera fans can purchase sought-after tickets to this hidden gem of the Cotswolds.

For its 2017 season, Longborough presents a revival of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, plus three new productions. Director Orpha Phelan and designer Madeleine Boyd, winners of the 2016 Best Opera Production award at the Royal Danish Opera, make their Longborough debuts with Beethoven’s Fidelio; Thomas Guthrie returns to direct Mozart’s The Magic Flute in the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Freemasons; and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice is Longborough’s Young Artist production for 2017, uniting emerging singers and players.

Longborough has long been celebrated for its performances of Wagner’s work. The Festival opens with a revival of the acclaimed 2015 production of Tristan und Isolde, conducted by renowned Wagnerian Anthony Negus, with Peter Wedd and Lee Bisset in the title roles. Carmen Jakobi directs, and this year the production will not feature the dancers who originally reflected the alter egos of the main characters.

Its themes of incarceration and illegal detainment have kept Beethoven’s only opera relevant across decades. Director Orpha Phelan and designer Madeleine Boyd won the award for Best Opera Production in 2016 at the Royal Danish Opera, and make their debuts at Longborough with a new post-apocalyptic vision of Fidelio.

Gad Kadosh is a French-Israeli conductor and ‘rising star’ (Guardian) who made his UK opera debut with Longborough’s Rigoletto in 2015. He has since gone on to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Anthony Negus this year conducts all but one performance of Mozart’s comic opera. Working with the acclaimed director of Longborough’s 2016 Le nozze di Figaro Thomas Guthrie, this new production will mark the first time for Longborough audiences to hear Negus conduct an opera outside the Wagner repertoire.

*Assistant conductor James Henshaw will conduct the performance on Sunday 16 July. James is the current chorus master at English National Opera.

The Young Artist programme has long been a key part of Longborough’s aim to help emerging singers and players in an important early step towards stardom. This year’s new production is Orfeo ed Euridice.

Based on the tale of Orpheus, one of the most famous and beloved Greek myths, Orfeo ed Euridice is an enormously influential opera with a plot that helped to inspire many works that followed including The Magic Flute and Fidelio.

New for 2017 is a scheme giving priority booking and ticket discounts to those aged 18-35. The scheme is free to join with a valid proof of ID. 18-35 Members can book a week ahead of general booking, and can get 50% off selected seats at most performances. See terms atlfo.org.uk.

Tickets are available at lfo.org.uk or by calling the Box Office on 01451 830292. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 10am – 4pm.